Dynamic Body Balancing Weekend

Last weekend was really amazing. It started out with me having a meltdown into the magma of unworthiness. Forget “inadequate pelvis,” my head, my heart, my whole life sucked. Maybe being on such a steep learning curve curve with life was getting to me. I really lost my peace.
Anyway, the Dynamic Body Balancing class was about to start and I felt that I was facing a cliff to climb to get my attitude together to attend.
Carol Phillips, the Chiropractor who teaches this mixture of methods, called to see if I had time for lunch Thursday. What a blessing. We sat at The Good Earth. Soon she was reassuring me with her story of how shaken her world became until she devoted herself to writing her book, Hands of Love.
Discontent with everything, she also left her practice and began writing…for 8 years (doing a quieter practice on the side). Her story made me feel much better.
Much of my angst is from going in too many directions. I surrendered myself to the weekend. It was the last of four weekend workshops with Carol.
How will I ever have time to practice these new skills? Right now, I have every day booked for my various projects. God would have to decide how this would work, if at all.
As I put on my coat to leave the house, I felt strongly that I had to go back and listen to my phone messages. Confession- I hadn’t listened to messages for two days while I was in my snit. I heard those tell-tale etheric bells even as I heard a woman’s voice tell how she was facing an induction for her VBAC at 42 weeks. Her baby wasn’t engaged in her pelvis. Her first baby never engaged either. She and her midwives had noted that this baby was posterior so she had begun the techniques from Spinning Babies and saw a Chiropractor.

I headed over after class to see what we could do. Her baby had just rotated to LOT the night before, a lovely starting position – except that this baby was still not engaged. I bit my tongue rather than say she was at an increase risk for cesarean because her baby’s head was yet above the pelvis (Stronge; and Shin; both studies say 12 x the risk for cesarean, Shin’s study is for 1st time moms over 41 weeks). Well, its a second baby, I rationalized, that may be why the head was up. Early labor might yet bring the baby into the pelvis. Though I didn’t think so. Her history indicated a torsion in her pelvis. She’d been in a car accident two years before when a woman ran a red light. So, we did a series of activities Friday night.

Sunday, just before the workshop ended, I got a call from the hospital.
She’d been induced the night before with IV Pitocin. Super strong contractions resulted. The Pit was turned off to let her uterus rest (and avoid a rupture). In the afternoon, the midwife broke her water to see if she could labor without more medication. No contractions came so the Pitocin was turned back on. Her cervix was 4 cm dilated (10 cm is fully open and ready for the pushing urge).
What could they do? I suggested a psoas release and Carol’s famous three-some: the forward leaning inversion (again), the sidelying release and the standing sacral release. After the workshop, I called back and offered to come out to the hospital. Everyone was tired so a fresh face was welcome. They’d been at the hospital about 24-hours now.

Her labor was just revving up as I arrived. We went through as many of the myofascial release techniques as I could with her standing and contracting every 2-3 minutes. As she stood and leaned towards her husband, I noticed her sacrum and tailbone were pulled unusually inward. Bilateral pressure anteriorly on both insertion points for the sacrotuberous ligaments had a most beneficial effect. I did specific massage to relieve her TMJ, including inside-the-mouth pressure point release. Afterwards, she wanted to lay down on her side. Then I was able to do some cranial fascial release. For an hour, I followed her around like a sucker fish on a shark.

The nurse-midwife came in and offered to check her cervix for dilation. The mom was laboring internally and didn’t answer. The doula and I had been with her that hour and we said we couldn’t discern a change, though the contractions were closer and quite strong. So the midwife left saying, just let me know…
The very next contraction brought the urge to push. The nurse was there and asked if she should check. Yet, the mom felt no downward pressure and her sacrum was still pulled anteriorly. The next contraction came and again I said, well, the sacrum hasn’t come out yet. The mom still complained of the same discomfort she was having from the head being on her bladder.
The third contraction was quite different! The sacrum flared out and I smiled at the nurse, now her sacrum has come out. Now this could have been the fetal ejection reflex (Michel Odent) or it could have been that the ligament release let the sacrum become free to move.

The midwife returned and found a bit of cervix left, but baby was coming down. She went from 4-10 cm during the hour I did the body work. She coped so well I wasn’t sure she was progressing; it was easier for her to cope in transition than when she was first on the Pit getting to 4 cm, probably because of the tension in her pelvic floor and sacrum from her car accident. Suddenly, she was getting relief and felt hope. Ultimately, she had to push very hard to bring her baby out. He was quite a good size.
The nurse and midwife were pretty impressed. I guess it could have been a coincidence. I don’t think so, though.
Thank you, Carol Phillips, for all you’ve taught me. I’m pretty sure it saved this mom from having another cesarean. It took all four classes. TMJ and a tight psoas…I think these were the issues. The TMJ can pull up the sacrum or something… let me check my notes… Anyway, never underestimate the fascia!

What a fun way to learn. Take the class during the day and go to a birth in the evening. God arranges everything!
Carol is returning to St. Paul, Minnesota in 2010. Here’s Carol’s schedule:

2010 Dynamic Body Balancing Workshops with Carol Phillips, DC
Each 20-Hr workshop is $400/$450 with CEU’s

Minneapolis / St. Paul, Minnesota
Level I February 12th-14th
Level II April 9th-11th
L III Pregnant Women and Babies July 19-20th?
Level IV October 1st-3rd
Level I December 3rd-5th

Annapolis, Maryland
Level I March 12th-14th
Level II April 30th-May 1st
Level III August 20th-22nd
Level IV October 15th-17th